Targeted marketing has long been known as an effective method for reaching consumers. When the consumer receives only relevant content (advertisements, etc.) from a provider, the consumer is more likely to patronize the particular provider, make purchases, and provide additional personal information that may assist in refining the provider's “view” of the consumer. As such, targeted marketing can lead to a more focused and robust interaction with the consumer. This, correspondingly, can lead to a more rewarding interaction for the provider by generating increased revenue.
In order to effectively target a consumer, it may be desirable for marketing systems to react to consumer information received from a variety of online and offline sources. These sources may include databases and servers, as well as multiple web properties within a network of affiliated websites. Moreover, the consumer information may be collected from a variety of sources in diverse formats. It may also be desirable for marketing systems to interact with the systems that actually deliver the content to the user. In short, an effective marketing system may appreciate the characteristics and preferences of a specific user regardless of the number or type of channels through which contact with the user is made.
Some known systems, however, are only adapted to receive information from a single source (e.g., registration information provided by the consumer). Other systems may receive information from multiple sources, but are unable to usefully combine information relating to the same consumer and communicate it to the necessary content delivery system. Thus, it may be desirable to have a system and method for delivering content that integrates with and aggregates data from various sources, including the underlying systems that deliver content to the consumer.
Known systems for delivering targeted content to consumers are focused on reaching the greatest quantity of consumers, without considering the value of interacting with each particular consumer. For example, some systems may deliver “targeted” content to each member of a group of consumers based on the fact that each subscribes to the same magazine. These systems, however, do not consider that only a portion of the group may make on-line purchases, for example, in addition to subscribing to the magazine. This failure to recognize and differentiate “valuable” consumers can lead to lost revenue for the content provider. In addition, the delivery of content to a significant volume of low-value consumers may expend valuable system resources. Accordingly, it may be desirable to have a means of delivering the appropriate content to the appropriate user in order to maximize the value of the relationship between the provider and the consumer.
In at least some embodiments, the system and method of the present invention may provide significant advantages over known marketing systems. Some, but not necessarily all, embodiments of the present invention may provide a useful system and method for targeting the delivery of content to selected consumers. It is an advantage of some embodiments of the present invention to efficiently collect and integrate consumer data from a variety of online and offline sources. It is an additional advantage of some embodiments of the present invention to effectively deliver content to high-value consumers. Additional advantages of various embodiments of the invention are set forth, in part, in the description that follows and, in part, will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art from the description and/or from the practice of the invention.